


stick to your roots, reach for the clouds

by markleegalaxies



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Basketball, Alternate Universe - College/University, Basketball, Enemies to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sexual Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, jaemin and shotaro adopted a cat together it’s pretty nice, team captain lee jeno
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:21:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28647474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markleegalaxies/pseuds/markleegalaxies
Summary: Jaemin is one of the newest members to join the basketball team, and immediately gives captain Jeno a run for his money. When the first game of the season rolls around and Jaemin quickly becomes a crowd favourite, Jeno is suddenly very determined to make sure no one touches his captaincy.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 60





	stick to your roots, reach for the clouds

The sun is impossible bright from where it shines in through the high windows of the gymnasium, projecting beams of sunlight across the room and illuminating all the dust in the way. 

Jeno would take the time to look at the dust longer if he wasn’t in the middle of something very, very important. And if Yukhei wasn’t constantly nudging him in the ribs to grab his attention. His sides are probably bruised by now. 

“Dude, look at him,” Yukhei whispers, the tip of pen tapping incessantly on the clipboard in front of him. There’s one in front of Jeno too, and he’s not too ashamed to admit that it’s more for show than anything else. It’s not like they need to write down many points about this anyways. “He’s better than the past like, three guys.”

“Hm,” Jeno hums slowly, keeping his eyes trained onto the tall form of the boy playing a quick scrimmage with Mark, a junior who’s already been on their team for three years. “What’s his name again?” 

Yukhei tears his eyes away from the scrimmage only for a second to take a quick glance at the name. 

“Jung Sungchan. Freshman.”

Jeno will admit that Sungchan plays really well for a freshman, but there’s a lot of other freshmen who play well too. Park Jisung, for example, another tall kid who knows just how to manoeuvre his limbs strategically instead of tripping over them. 

Yukhei continues to give his input and commentary on Sungchan while he finishes the game with Mark, but Jeno isn’t really listening. 

He’s more focused on how Sungchan moves around the court, as well as how he uses his height to his advantage. Tall people are obviously very useful in a game like basketball, but not a lot of tall boys try out for their team. Which there’s nothing wrong with—it’s just that Jeno doesn’t want to throw away what could be potential.

That’d be a shitty move as captain, after all. 

Sungchan played well, and Jeno sends him off to wait with the other guys with a smile and a nod of his head. 

“He’s not bad,” Mark comments as he takes the bottle of water Yukhei offers him. It’s his sixth bottle so far, having been scrimmaging with all of the boys trying out. Jeno would’ve asked Yangyang to come and take shifts with Mark, but Mark was better as quickly assessing how someone plays. During tryouts, that was much more useful. “His hands move a second after his feet, but that shouldn’t be too hard to fix with some practice.”

“I noticed that too,” Jeno nods, grabbing his pen and crossing Sungchan’s name off of the list with the blue ink. “There’s only one person left. He’s a freshman too.”

“Zhong Chenle,” Yukhei reads, and then his eyes roam over the group of boys until they settle on a shorter one with black hair. 

Jeno also recognizes him as someone who hasn’t tried out yet, and Chenle seems to have heard Yukhei read his name, seeing as he’s already looking at him. Jeno simply beckons him over with what he hopes is a kind smile, and then explains how the tryout will go for the nth time this morning. 

Maybe it wasn’t the brightest idea to have tryouts starting at 7:00am, but Jeno wanted to make sure that everyone who wanted a spot on the team was dedicated and willing. In all aspects, especially if it meant insanely early morning practices and dreadful night ones. 

Jeno is ready to give his all into his team and this season, and he doesn’t want to settle for any less with his teammates. 

Last year had been a good season too, they had made it all the way to the semi finals. The only thing which caused their team its loss was a rather nasty fight had ensued between two of their teammates the weekend before their game, which had messed up the whole dynamic and flow. 

Jeno, having had the captaincy of the team passed down to him from their previous captain, Nakamoto Yuta, intends to not make the same mistake this year. 

They’re looking for five new players, since half their team had graduated last year. Taeyong, Yuta, Taeil, Kun, and Ten had all played their last season, leaving many big shoes to fill. 

Jeno is ripped back into present time when he hears the squeaking of Chenle and Mark’s shoes against the hardwood floor. 

He focuses on critiquing Chenle, and as it seems, he’s  _ exceptional. _

Jeno doesn’t have to be watching for more a few minutes to immediately know that he’s an incredible player, and that he also has a really easy, really immediate chemistry with Mark. 

They move around and against each other like they’ve been playing for years, and Jeno wonders if Chenle would adapt this easily to the other members of their team too. It’d be really helpful and vital if he could. 

Chenle isn’t even done with his scrimmage against Mark when Jeno puts a star next to his name, proceeding to cross his name off the list, as he’s the last person to try out. 

“Thanks Chenle,” Jeno grins when the two are done on the court. “You’re really good.”

“Thanks,” Chenle smiles, panting as he retrieves his own water bottle. He takes a few long sips before calming down and running his wrist over his forehead to wipe off some sweat. “I’ve been playing for a few years.” 

“Dude, even if you don’t make it, I’d love to mess around again,” Mark pipes up, bringing his hand up for a high-five. 

Chenle laughs before raising his own hand, and then the two of them walk off to the sides, where Mark is probably going to ask Chenle for his number for when he wants to play again some time. 

“Sweet, are we done now?” Yukhei asks, sighing happily and stretching his arms over his head. He yawns, and the mere sight makes Jeno want to yawn too. “Wanna grab breakfast? There’s this new smoothie place—”

Yukhei doesn’t get to finish telling Jeno about the smoothie place, because the telltale sounds of the gymnasium doors bursting open echoes through the room. 

Jeno’s eyes snap to the doors at the intrusion, and he cocks an eyebrow up automatically when he lays his eyes on someone he’s never seen before. 

The boy stands there frozen for what feels like more than three seconds, before one of the boys, who Jeno remembers to be Lee Donghyuck, jogs across the gym to meet him. 

Yukhei is also watching Donghyuck’s interaction with their other boy, and when Jeno casts a glance to the right out of his peripheral vision, he notices that everyone has stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. 

Jeno, however, isn’t dense. That’s why it doesn’t take more than three glances from Donghyuck sent his way to piece together what was happening. 

“Hey,” he calls, his voice loud enough to travel through the gymnasium, and all the way to the two boys still standing by the door. Once both their eyes snap to him, Jeno raises his eyebrow. “Are you here to try out? The tryouts which started over an hour ago?” 

Jeno doesn’t get an answer from either of them at first, since the unnamed boy looks at Donghyuck first, shakes his head a bit, but then gets dragged all the way up to where Jeno and Yukhei are sitting. 

“This is Jaemin,” Donghyuck introduces once they’ve stopped in front of the table. “He’s been contemplating if he should try out or not, and it seems he’s finally decided to.”

Jeno just looks between the two of them. 

Between Donghyuck collected face and Jaemin bouncing his leg up and down. 

“Tryouts started at 7:00 am,” he states again, and it makes Donghyuck sigh. “I don’t want someone on my team who shows up late.”

“Dude,” Yukhei pipes up, holding one of his weirdly large hands up to Jeno. He looks at Jaemin, smiles, and then looks at Jeno to scowl. “It can’t hurt to watch him play,” he insists, and now, Jeno glares. 

Tardiness was not something he wanted to tolerate on team, much less something he’d want to tolerate just because Yukhei had asked him to. 

“In this team, we act like professionals. Then, we’ll have professional mindsets, play like professionals, and win like professionals,” he explains curtly to Yukhei, and then he turns back to Jaemin, who still looks as nervous as he did a few minutes ago. “And professionals aren’t late.”

Jaemin’s head dips down at Jeno’s words, and Jeno thinks it  _ should _ . He doesn’t want anyone to get the wrong message; Jeno isn’t messing around this season. He’s seen what one little incident can do to the team and dynamic they spent the whole season creating, and he wasn’t keen on seeing history repeat itself. 

Yukhei looks like he wants to say something more, but before he can, someone else pipes up.

“Oh, come on Jeno,” Yangyang’s voice tsks, and Jeno hears his footsteps coming closer. “Don’t be a dick. I’ll even play with the dude.”

Yangyang wasn’t supposed to be here during tryouts, since he complained about how early they were. While being Jeno’s best friend, and teammate on the team, he was also Jeno’s largest nuisance. 

Now being one of those times. 

“You can’t make that decision,” Jeno sighs, fixing Yangyang with a tired look. He’s wearing skinny jeans—how did he expect to play a little round with Jaemin? His shoes don’t even have ankle support! Why was he even here—okay, that question can be asked later. “I’m the captain.”

“Yeah, okay  _ captain, _ ” Yangyang scoffs, putting particular emphasis on the last word as he mocks Jeno. “I’ll play a little scrimmage with the kid. You, just watch.” 

Jeno isn’t able to get another word out before Yangyang grabs a basketball off of the rack, immediately tossing it to Jaemin. 

Jeno expects the pass to catch Jaemin off guard, but is, admittedly, surprised when Jaemin catches it with fair ease. 

_ Sharp reflexes,  _ his mind immediately supplies, and while it is helpful, he doesn’t want to critique Jaemin. He isn’t even considering Jaemin as an option; he was late and didn’t even know if he for sure wanted to try out. Jeno didn’t want any wishy washy. 

Jeno slumps back into his chair as Jaemin dribbles the ball onto court, and he sees Donghyuck step back too. He’s aware of how everyone is watching Yangyang and Jaemin, but he doesn’t pay any mind to it. He doesn’t want to pay any mind to the whole thing, but then he sees Jaemin fake a move around Yangyang so fast it almost looks like it didn’t happen. 

In the brief two seconds that Yangyang is distracted and confused, Jaemin manages to shoot into the basket, securing himself two points. 

Everyone watching claps, including Yukhei much to Jeno’s dismay. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Jeno’s interest is piqued, and he keeps his eyes on the scrimmage going on in front of him. 

_ Distance shots _ , Jeno’s mind notes down again, when Jaemin manages to score another basket from the half-court line not even two minutes later. The scrimmage ends when one player scores three baskets, and so far, Jaemin scored two, and Yangyang hasn’t scored any. 

Which is definitely new, since Yangyang is one of Jeno’s best players. 

Maybe it’s the skinny jeans and lack of ankle support. 

Jaemin and Yangyang keep tiring each other out for another four minutes before Jaemin manages to skip out of Yangyang’s field of view, and lands a layup, securing his third and final basket. 

The other boys start clapping at Jaemin’s victory, and now that he isn’t immersed into the game, Jaemin’s shyness and nervousness seems to come back. He sees him shake hands with Yangyang with a smile, and his mind uselessly provides  _ sportsmanship,  _ as an afterthought. 

“Jeno…” Yukhei starts, and Jeno finally tears his eyes away from Jaemin when he sees him walk back to Donghyuck. When he looks at Yukhei, his eyes are wide and he’s already staring at him. “He was—that was insane! Yangyang couldn’t get past him!” 

“Don't talk like I can’t hear you,” Yangyang mutters, snatching a water bottle and gulping down half of it. Jeno grimaces when he considers the fact that Yangyang is sweating in his skinny jeans. “He’s insane. Really, really good, Jeno. I have no idea where he came from, but you would’ve been an idiot to not let him try out.”

Jeno doesn’t need Yangyang to tell him that, in fact, he doesn’t need Yangyang to tell him anything! At the end of the day, choosing the new teammates is his job, and while he can take his teammate’s opinions and thoughts into consideration, he made the final decision. 

“Yangyang just wasn’t wearing proper clothes to play,” Jeno reasons, and it’s immediately followed by Yangyang and Yukhei scoffing. 

“Don’t go making excuses just because you’re bitter,” Yangyang starts, fixing Jeno with a serious look. “He might be better than me. I’m serious Jeno—it’s going to be a huge loss if you don’t even consider him.”

“You guys played around for less than ten minutes,” Jeno argues, raising an eyebrow at Yangyang. “What can you even say about him in just ten minutes?” 

“I can easily say he’s better than half the team,” Yangyang boldly states, with hesitance, and without any regret. “Myself included. Can you say anything  _ bad  _ about him? Anything bad about the game you just saw?” 

Jeno presses his lips into a thin line, because when judging by the game and the game alone, Jeno doesn’t notice a single thing wrong with Jaemin. Nothing with form, rules, movement, or anything, really. 

But he hates to admit that Jaemin is  _ good _ , since he already left a sour first impression in Jeno’s mouth. He doesn’t even entertain the idea of Yangyang considering Jaemin being better than half of their current team—Mark was untouchable! And that new kid Jeno out a star next to, Chenle, was it? Chenle is also insane, Yangyang hadn’t seen him… 

“Nothing,” Yukhei answers, bringing Jeno back to reality. “I have nothing bad to say about Jaemin.” 

“Whatever,” Jeno mutters, and he gets out of his seat immediately afterwards so that Yangyang couldn't rope him into anything else with a few wisely chosen words. 

He walks in front of the group of boys who tried out, sith Yangyang, Yukhei, and Mark next to him. 

“Alright everybody,” he starts, grabbing everyone’s attention with his loud voice. “Thanks for popping in and trying out, your efforts have all been appreciated,” he says kindly, being purposefully vague. He couldn’t explicitly say some people sucked while others were phenomenal, he wasn’t  _ that  _ mean. “I should have a list posted by the end of the day today, so feel free to pop by any time after 5:00 pm. And just remember, if you don’t make it this year, there’s always next year!” 

Jeno watches them all file out of the gym with their bags and water bottles in tow, some of them even having towels around their necks. Jeno isn’t sure if that’s necessary, they couldn’t possibly have sweat that much during their time here? 

But it’s whatever, Jeno doesn’t judge. At least, not intentionally. 

When they’re left alone, with just the four of them in the large gymnasium, Jeno looks down at his clipboard. 

“I know I want Zhong Chenle,” he says out loud, flipping from the page with the names of every who had tried out to the page where he has the current team’s members written down. He adds Chenle’s name to the end of the list. “And that Sungchan kid has a lot of potential.”

“I liked Sungchan,” Yukhei agrees, pausing for a few seconds to think back on his game. “Either he’s really good, or the guys before him were really bad.” 

Yangyang snickers, and so does Mark, before the latter says something. 

“No, he’s genuinely good. He’s tall too,” he says. “His hand and feet coordination could use a bit of work, but it’s nothing that practice won’t be able to fix.”

Jeno lets the thoughts sit in his head for a little, pacing around slowly before adding Sungchan’s name under Chenle’s. 

“Jisung,” Mark immediately says after Jeno lifts his pen off the paper. “Park Jisung. He’s as good as Sungchan. Let him practice penalties, and he’s the best all rounder in the team. He never misses a dunk or a layup.” 

Jeno reminisces a bit on Jisung’s performance, and he agrees with everything Mark said. 

But—

“Three freshmen?” he asks out loud, looking at the other three in front of him. “They’ve never played like this before, isn’t that too much of a risk?” 

“Oh come on,” Mark says disbelievingly, looking at Jeno like he was crazy. “Who cafes if they’re freshmen, did you see them? They’re already practically at your level!”

“I’m not talking about their skill,” Jeno corrects. “I’m asking if they’d be able to handle the pressure. Everyone on the team right now has played at least one season. We all know how it goes. Do they?” 

“Well don’t be dense,” Yangyang says, raising an eyebrow at Jeno. “You know they don’t know the pressure. They're not supposed to know the pressure of college basketball—they’re freshmen. But that's our job isn’t it? As teammates, older teammates at that.” 

Yangyang isn’t wrong—but Jeno still thinks  _ three  _ is too many. 

“I don’t know…” 

“Would you rather the middle who tripped over his laces? Four times?” Yukhei deadpans, and while it makes Yangyang laugh, it makes Jeno shudder and immediately scribble Jisung’s name in under Sungchan’s. 

“Two more spots,” he reminds them, and it seems that Yukhei has a name ready immediately.

“Donghyuck,” he suggests, but it sounds more like a statement, like he’s sure Donghyuck would make a good addition to their team. He wonders why. “Did you see how fast he was? And he has  _ fun  _ dude, he’ll like… Mindfuck the other team with the way he moves.”

Once again, Yukhei isn’t wrong, and Mark’s own hums of agreement and input is enough for Jeno to write down Donghyuck’s name in the second last blank line. 

“I think the last one is pretty obvious,” Yangyang starts with a grin, one that Yukhei and Mark mirror immediately. 

Jeno sighs as he looks between the three of them, and then prays to whatever deity there is up there to give him the patience. 

“No—”

“Na Jaemin!” Yangyang cheers, looking at Jeno expectantly. “Na Jaemin, Na Jaemin, Na Jaemin!”

“He was  _ late _ ,” Jeno emphasizes once more, looking at the three of them, at Yangyang in particular. “He didn’t even know if he wanted to try out. He’s not committed to basketball, which means he won’t be committed to the team.” 

“Oh, boohoo,” Mark mocks, and Jeno looks at him, offended. 

“Mark!”

“Jeno, listen to me,” Mark sighs, walking right up to Jeno and putting two hands on his shoulders. “Who did you have in mind if not Jaemin?” 

Jeno blanks for a few seconds, before wracking his brain and trying to think of someone who would fill in the equivalent as Jaemin. 

“Uh,” he starts, thinking for a second more before saying, “Sunwoo?”

“The dude who almost broke my nose because his aim was so bad?” Mark deadpans, and Jeno feels only a bit embarrassed. More frustrated though. “Fine though. Give Jaemin a week. If he’s flakey, just kick him off and put Sunwoo in. Jaemin won’t care if he’s kicked if he isn’t committed.”

Jeno looks between the three of them, just to see Yangyang and Yukhei nodding their heads eagerly, and he sighs. 

“I’ll think about it.”

  
  
  


///

  
  
  


“I  _ told  _ Renjun not to shove me in there like a fucking  _ idiot _ , but your boyfriend isn’t half the brain you think he is!” 

“Hey,” Donghyuck cuts off seriously, holding a hand up to Jaemin. “Don't bring my boyfriend into this. He pushed your ass in the right direction. Hauling you out of bed at ass o’clock in the morning so that you wouldn’t miss tryouts. You love basketball, you dimwit, you’re just lazy.”

“Enough name calling now please,” Jaemin scoffs, adjusting his t-shirt over his shoulders as he and Donghyuck find themselves walking towards the gymnasium for the second time today. “Let’s just see if we’re on this stupid list or not.”

“Don’t call right stupid, you’re going to squeal like a baby seeing s dolphin for the first time,” Donghyuck says confidently and it makes Jaemin scrunch his nose. 

“First of all, weirdly fucking specific analogy dude, and second, go on. Read the list.”

The list is posted right where Jeno said it would be, and there’s a few people Jaemin vaguely recognizes from the morning around it. 

He and Donghyuck don’t pay them any mind though when they walk over to read it, from top to bottom, with thirteen names total.

_ LEE JENO _

_ LIU YANGYANG _

_ WONG YUKHEI _

_ LEE MINHYUNG _

_ JUNG JAEHYUN _

_ XIAO DEJUN _

_ KIM JUNGWOO _

_ WONG KUNHANG _

_ ZHONG CHENLE _

_ JUNG SUNGCHAN _

_ PARK JISUNG _

_ LEE DONGHYUCK _

_ NA JAEMIN _

**Author's Note:**

> haha this chapter isnt edited yet... maybe i’ll edit it soon


End file.
